This invention relates to a novel adhesive-backed tile panel, and more particularly relates to a prefabricated tile panel comprising a substrate sheet composed of a core fabric coated with a heat-softening-adherent material, a multiplicity of tiles secured onto one surface of the substrate sheet, and an adhesive layer applied at specified intervals onto the other surface of the substrate sheet and protected by a release sheet. This invention also relates to a method for installing the prefabricated tile panels on a substrate board having horizontal lines or crosspieces for mounting the panel.
The advantages of ceramic tile walls and the like are well known especially for bathrooms, shower rooms, kitchens, etc. The setting of tiles at a construction site, however, requires a painstaking, time-consuming and skilled task. With the present high labor costs and the accelerated rate of construction, the conventional methods for installing ceramic tiles are extremely costly and time-consuming. The recent trend toward modular housing construction, wherein housing sections are factory built and joined together at the construction site, has further spotlighted the shortcomings of the traditional tile installation methods.
Thus, a variety of prefabricated tile panels including bonded tiles and having panel-securing means such as anchors have been proposed, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,646,180 and 3,817,012; the description being incorporated herein by reference to show the state of art and the foundation works for installing the prefabricated tile panels. Conventional prefabricated tile panels having bonded tiles are installed at a construction site by anchoring means or inorganic cement or rubber-adhesives.
The prefabricated tile panels having sticky bonding layers on all the back surfaces thereof are also known. Such panels, however, undergo partially floated or raised phenomena causing separation of installed panels, because upon installation it is difficult or even impossible to purge (i.e. exclude) air present at depressions on the surface of a substrate board or the back surface of the panel. Production of such conventional tile panels having sticky layers on the allover back surfaces thereof has troubles in that application of the sticky adhesive layer needs multiple complicated steps and broad working spaces and it is also difficult to apply a thick sticky layer uniformly. On the other hand, prefabricated tile panels to be installed by anchoring means are not always sound and may require rather complicated foundation works for installation.
Thus, the present inventors have conducted intensive research on prefabricated tile panels to accomplish the present invention and found that the above described problems or troubles can be solved or eliminated substantially by the prefabricated tile panel and the method for installing the tile panel of the present invention.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a novel prefabricated tile panel to be readily installed on a substrate board.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel method for installing the prefabricated tile panel on a substrate board rapidly and neatly by those unskilled in tiling techniques.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description.